4 Signs Your Home Is About to Lose Value

by AnnaMaria Andriotis

Despite signs that the real estate market is bottoming out, millions of homeowners are likely to find themselves in worse shape within the next two years.

Nearly half of the nation’s 52 million mortgage borrowers will have negative equity by the end of the first quarter of 2011, up from the 14 million at the end of this year’s first quarter, according to estimates in an Aug. 5 report by Deutsche Bank. With so many borrowers underwater – or owing more on their home than it’s worth – the risk is high that they’ll default and their homes will go into foreclosure, says Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. (Moody’s Economy.com estimates that 17.5 million mortgage borrowers will be underwater by early 2010.)

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Great Source of Private Money For Real Estate Investing

How would it be to have access to over a million dollars in private money for real estate investing? That?s just what a good friend of mine stumbled into when he did a very simple thing? something you can do in an afternoon.

My friend, Jim, has been investing in real estate for several years. One day, after a family get together, he decided to let his family know about his investing. He had been pretty successful with small apartment buildings, so he decided to send out a simple postcard to all the members of his family, telling them to call him if they knew of anyone wanting to sell rental property.

Lo and behold, Jim got a call the very next week from an uncle he barely knew. The uncle didn?t know of any property for sale, but he expressed curiosity in what Jim was doing, so the two men made an appointment to get together for lunch.

At lunch, Jim explained his investing strategy, and outlined some of the successes he had enjoyed. He talked about the simple things in his business, like buying value, and looking for positive cash flow. He enjoyed talking about it, and Jim?s uncle seemed genuinely interested.

Then Jim got the surprise of his life.

As they were leaving, Jim?s uncle leaned into the car window and said, ?Could you use a silent partner to help with the financing end of things??

Jim says, ?I think my heart skipped several beats before I answered.?

After Jim?s heart started again, he told his uncle he?d be happy to put his money to work. It turned out that Jim?s uncle was sitting on nearly $1,000,000 in liquid assets, assets Jim has used over and over again during the last few years to build a rental real estate empire.

The funny thing is, Jim didn?t set out to find relatives with money. He was just looking for some property, and along the way he found one of the greatest private lenders I?ve ever heard about.

What can we take away from this story? Well, you may not have a relative with anywhere near the available cash Jim?s uncle has, but the question is, how do you know? More importantly, how easy would it be to find out? My guess is, pretty easy. Could you find a creative way to ask, and let your family know what you?re doing? Of course you could!

Real Estate Investing Apprenticeship - An Overview

If you?re new to the world of real estate investing, you may be wondering how you can get started when there seems to be so much to learn and understand. Maybe you should consider a real estate investing apprenticeship.

A real estate investing apprenticeship can take any of several different forms. It can be a flexible arrangement with an experienced investor that you partner with for one deal only, or it could be a structured agreement whereby you form an ongoing working relationship with an individual or group of investors.

Either way, there are a few things you should consider before entering into a real estate investing apprenticeship.

First, what exactly do you want to get out of your real estate investing apprenticeship? In other words, what is it you are looking to learn? If you want to learn how to flip houses after rehabbing them, you should look for an experienced rehabber to partner with, offering to bird-dog or wholesale a few deals to him in exchange for looking over his shoulder throughout the process.

If you want your real estate investing apprenticeship to help you build your cash reserves for long term property holding, you should look for a mentor who is willing to split the profits on some larger deals. You might offer to do all or most of the legwork that many experienced investors are just too busy to do.

On the other hand, if you?re hoping to learn the ropes of lease option or subject to investing, you will want your real estate investing apprenticeship to build your skills in those areas. Find an investor with plenty of experience doing those types of deals, and offer to partner up with them several deals.

When approaching a potential mentor about a real estate investing apprenticeship, make sure you tell them what?s in it for them. Tell them the benefits they will realize by partnering with you. Offer to do all or most of the legwork, bring them leads and deals, and bring them potential buyers for their deals. Don?t expect them to want to help you simply out of the goodness of their heart.

Everyone likes to know they will be realizing a benefit from their efforts. Potential real estate investing apprenticeship mentors are no exception. Tell them how they stand to benefit and you will not only make a new friend, you may just make a ton of money, too!

Looking back, some of my most satisfying deals have been done in partnership with other investors. Most of them were win/win for all parties. I may not have recognized it at the time, but I was engaging in a real estate investing apprenticeship. You should explore the possibilities of doing the same.

Real Estate Investing: Types Of Leasing Agents

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to collate enough resources to start an establishment or invest in interesting business ventures. However, a key concern before venturing out in any field is to have an appropriate place to operate from. In the present scenario when land prices seem to be soaring drastically, leasing out land for all purposes seems an apt solution. Perfect environment, the right location and the requisite size coupled with minimum hassles is the tenant?s dream. However, these dreams are often shattered and requirements compromised owing to the increasing pains associated with finding the desired space. Scant market knowledge and the vast area to be studied before taking the final call ends up giving much more pain than ever thought of.

Hiring Leasing Agents: All You Need to Know If you are running a business, than perhaps the key headache ought to be the various professional decisions and not the painstaking search of an appropriate land or plot for running the business. This issue is catered to by various leasing agents, who are endowed with ample market knowledge. Requisite educational background serves as a handy tool. So forget your real estate investment pains and devote the saved time on other important chores.

There are various types of leasing agents who are well accustomed to the real estate industry practices, and due to constant dealing in the field, they have enough market knowledge to guide you to the best. Leasing agents based upon your budget and suitability can more skillfully locate the best location.

These agents are divided primarily into two broad generic categories, with various sub divisions. The two categories are defined based upon the party these agents represent. They can be an owner?s representative in the deal who are looking for an apt tenant or could be a tenant?s representative looking out for the desired package. However, the agents specialize in any of the specified categories; a few tend to operate in both.

Both these agents are in constant touch with each other and act as an important source of information for each other?s client. Another bifurcation is between agents providing land for business purposes or investment purposes (known as investment real estate) or for residential purposes (referred to as residential real estate agents). The payment terms are often worked out as a proportion of the total fee. Another mode of compensation is by paying a basic salary plus incentives, which are performance based.

Their job entails all aspects starting from showing a property to the interested party to accommodating the tenants and handling their concerns. All paperwork and administrative concerns are also managed by these lease agents, who could either be self employed or associated with various firms acting as mediators.

Leasing agents can be a simplified solution to the complex real estate investment decisions however before hiring one make sure to check their and the associated firm?s (if any) license to operate in the said category.

Real Estate Investing: Tax Liens

Certain measures have to be taken by the government to make delinquent taxpayers to pay taxes that are due, tax lien is one such method adopted in 18 states, where as the rest of the states use the tax deed system. In states where applicable, tax liens are sold to investors for taxes that are over due, and the investor can collect interest from the homeowners for the amount invested in the tax liens. If the homeowner fails to pay the tax lien plus interest, the investor may foreclose on the house and gets to own the property without any problems, as it is a first priority claim.

Advantages of Investing In Tax Liens:

This method of investing in real estate is gaining popularity as investors are guaranteed a favorable return on their investment or in extreme cases deeded rights to a property. The earning potential is about 16% to 24% and it is considered a low risk and a low maintenance investment. These interest rates are untouched by any changes in the Federal Reserve interest rates. Another reason why investors love this method is that they lien does not subject them to land owner liability. Tax liens are secure investments as they are but a fraction of the property value.

When property tax delinquents are given adequate time as well as warnings to pay the arrears, and they fail to do so for more than a year and a half, the tax collectors will list their property taxes liens and sell them in an auction. The property owner is informed of the intended sale of their tax lien as well as published in the local newspaper. Once the tax lien is sold, the homeowner is given a fixed time frame, the redemption period, to repay the tax lien plus interest. Foreclosure of the home is inevitable if the amount due is not paid within the redemption period. The investor is granted full rights of ownership to the property and in case the money owed is repaid while foreclosure is initiated; the investor has the right to charge the cost of he foreclosure to the homeowner too. Thus they have potential to huge profits. If foreclosure occurs the property is given free and clear of all other claims to the investor. Another advantage is that the investor need not worry about redemption as the county is in charge of that and usually they need have no contact with the delinquent taxpayer. If the redemption has been paid to the county, the county returns the principle amount plus the interest to the investor on producing the tax lien certificates. Should the same homeowner is delinquent again the investor has a priority claim on the tax lien.

There are firms that offer their services as well as products to help new entrepreneurs run a successful business.

Real Estate Investing Analysis

This article gives you a foundational understanding of residential real estate investing analysis, and a formula for determining how much to offer when purchasing property for rehab and wholesale purposes.

Anyone can learn the simple skill of real estate investing analysis. The important point to understand is that the analysis will vary, depending on the type of real estate being discussed. This article focuses exclusively on residential single family and duplex properties purchased for rehab and wholesale purposes.

The first step in your real estate investing analysis is to determine the fair market value of the property after all repairs have been completed. This is done most accurately by having a Realtor run a comparable sales comparison report. Make sure the properties your Realtor chooses are truly comparable, not simply the same bedroom count, but also the same type of construction, in the same neighborhood, roughly the same age, etc..

The next step in performing your real estate investing analysis is to determine the cost of all needed repairs to bring the property into what I call ?retail condition?. In other words, how much will all the repairs cost to complete, including materials, labor, and holding costs?

Once you have determined these two values- After Repair Market Value and Repair Costs- the next step in the real estate investing analysis process is some simple subtraction. Subtract the Repair Costs from the After Repair Market Value to arrive at the property?s Current Market Value.

Once you are armed with the Current Market Value of a property, it?s a simple matter to complete the real estate investing analysis and arrive at your offer price. Your offer price will be the Current Market Value minus either $20,000 or 30%, whichever is lower.

To make this real estate investing analysis process all very clear, here’s an example: Suppose you are looking at a single family home in a mid-priced neighborhood. The Realtor pulls Comparables and you determine that the After Repair Value of the property is $150,000. You further estimate that the repairs needed will cost $30,000 to complete, including materials, labor, and holding costs.

Next, as part of your real estate investing analysis, you subtract the $30,000 Repair Costs from the $150,000 After Repair Value, and arrive at a Current Market Value of $120,000. You subtract $20,000 from $120,000 and get $100,000. You also subtract 30% from $120,000 and get $84,000. The lesser of $100,000 or $84,000 is $84,000, so that is your offer price- $84,000.

Using this formula for real estate investing analysis you may miss out on a few properties you could have bought otherwise, but you will never overpay for a property, and you will always make money.

Now, go make more offers!

Beginning Real Estate Investing

Never before have so many people, from all backgrounds and circumstances, investigated beginning real estate investing. If you have ever thought about buying and selling property for profit, or even if you’re just curious, this article is for you.

There are several different paths to beginning real estate investing, but I’m going to suggest one simple, easy to follow, step-by step plan that has worked for many investors, and made lots of people wealthy.

When thinking about beginning real estate investing, you need to have a goal. Think about what you want to accomplish, and what you want to get out of your investing activities. Creating a detailed goal plan is half the fun of beginning real estate investing.

Next, look for your local Real Estate Investor’s Association (REIA) and start attending their meetings. You should find lots of other folks who are beginning real estate investing, but you should also find many experienced investors. Go out of your way to get to know them all.

In the investors group, look for someone you think would make a good mentor. You’re looking for someone with experience doing the kind of investing you want to do. Make sure it’s not someone who is just beginning real estate investing, but a person with some real experience.

Ask that person to mentor you, and offer to help them in return. Tell them you’ll be happy to bring them deals if they’ll teach you what to look for. Explain that you may be just beginning real estate investing, but someday soon you’ll be in a position to help them if they’re patient with you.

At the same time, you should be getting to know others who can help you with beginning real estate investing. People like Realtors, bankers, contractors, and others all can become valuable team members as your investing activities expand. These valuable relationships are just like money in the bank- wait and see!

Last, but certainly not least. Read and study everything you can get your hands on, especially free and low cost information available on the internet. Find a couple of sites that you really like, and spend a lot of time there. Read the authors who have done what you want to do. Of course it helps if you like their writing style.

Follow the steps I’ve outlined above, and soon you’ll be among the ranks of those who call themselves Real Estate Investors. You can find a more detailed guide on Beginning Real Estate Investing at my website.

Now, go make more offers!

Insider Secrets to Real Estate Investing

Have you ever wondered about investing in realestate? Maybe one sleepless night you tunedin to one of those infomercials that promises you the moon.

You know the ones we’re talking about. They always show “Joe Slick” and his blonde wife and 1.5 kids basking by their Olympic sized swimmingpool behind a mansion that makes the Taj Majal look like a chicken coop!

They go on to tell you how you can do the samething almost immediately and all it will cost you to find out is five thousand dol*lars!

Yeah right and there’s a bridge for sale too!
Well, here’s your chance to get the real deal.
Real Estate Investment for Beginners is written by a successful veteran of real world Real Estate.
Get the answers to all your questions and do it without “Joe Slick” and all his phoney garbage.
If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s really possible to make mon*ey in real estate, here’s your chance to find out.

Check it out at: http://real-estate.web-reviews.org/

About the Author

Sal Vannutini has actively invested in real estate for almost 20 years.

His love of real estate and renovating has allowed him to secure financial freedom by the age of 40, and at the time of writing, he is retired from his “real job”, and spends his time renovating for fun and profit, as well as hanging out with his wife and children.

Sal’s experience also comes as a result of 11 years in the real estate profession where he has witne

Virtual Business Ownership - - Marketing The Best You

When you think of the word “marketing”, most people automatically associate the term with a business, however, in this article it will be associated with you, the virtual business owner.

Now picture this, Zipgirl is attending a network gathering and someone walks up to her and says “Hi there, my name is ABC and I represent XYZ company” Zipgirl responds, pleased to meet you, my name is Zipgirl and I work from home. Well, ABC simply nodded and walked away. Would you have done the same as ABC? Did Zipgirl say enough to attract your attention or enough to make you want to stay and listen? I think we both agree in a resounding NO.

To often times when we are asked who we are and what we do, we short change ourselves by not marketing the best in ourselves. How can I do it better you ask? Below are some questions that will help you to identify your marketing strengths as well as your challenges:

- Can you describe your personality in just five words?
- Are you totally committed as well as passionate about what you do?
- Are you always optimistic about what you do in spite of the challenges you face?
- Are you happy doing what you do?
- What’s unique about your service or product?
- What type of energy do you release when you talk about your business? Do you leave people fascinated and wanting to learn more or bored and uninterested?
- When out promoting your business, what does your outward appearance say about you? Do you walk with your head down? Do stay cooped in the corner of the room or are you out in the crowd taking charge, meeting people with a smile, standing tall and bringing out the best in those you meet?

Next, I’ll share with you some tips on how to market the best in you:

- Always present a pleasant smile, whether on the telephone, in person, in email or even in a fax (SMILE)
- Do what you love (you’ll be more fulfilled)
- Dont try to be the jack-of-all-trades (you do everything and anything) rather, specialize (promote the one thing or area you do best)
- Be unique (original)
- Always be professional
- Always be yourself
- Always express a sense of passion in what it is you do
- Always explore ways to enhance yourself (personally, professionally, and/or spiritually)

As you can see, marketing the best you is more than just selling or promoting your business and it’s products or services. As a business owner, you are in most cases the business (when people meet you, they are immediately exposed to the quality of your service or product). In the virtual world however, people won’t necessarily meet you face-to-face but they too are exposed to the quality of your service or product. How? Through your website, telephone conversation, and/or via email responses.

In closing, remember this, first impressions are everlasting, so when given the opportunity always remember to market the best in You…

To learn more about the Virtual Business Owners Initiative go to: www.vsscyberoffice.com.

Now picture this, Zipgirl is attending a network gathering and someone walks up to her and says “Hi there, my name is ABC and I represent XYZ company” Zipgirl responds, pleased to meet you, my name is Zipgirl and I work from home. Well, ABC simply nodded and walked away. Would you have done the same as ABC? Did Zipgirl say enough to attract your attention or enough to make you want to stay and listen? I think we both agree in a resounding NO.

To often times when we are asked who we are and what we do, we short change ourselves by not marketing the best in ourselves. How can I do it better you ask? Below are some questions that will help you to identify your marketing strengths as well as your challenges:

- Can you describe your personality in just five words?
- Are you totally committed as well as passionate about what you do?
- Are you always optimistic about what you do in spite of the challenges you face?
- Are you happy doing what you do?
- What’s unique about your service or product?
- What type of energy do you release when you talk about your business? Do you leave people fascinated and wanting to learn more or bored and uninterested?
- When out promoting your business, what does your outward appearance say about you? Do you walk with your head down? Do stay cooped in the corner of the room or are you out in the crowd taking charge, meeting people with a smile, standing tall and bringing out the best in those you meet?

Next, I’ll share with you some tips on how to market the best in you:

- Always present a pleasant smile, whether on the telephone, in person, in email or even in a fax (SMILE)
- Do what you love (you’ll be more fulfilled)
- Dont try to be the jack-of-all-trades (you do everything and anything) rather, specialize (promote the one thing or area you do best)
- Be unique (original)
- Always be professional
- Always be yourself
- Always express a sense of passion in what it is you do
- Always explore ways to enhance yourself (personally, professionally, and/or spiritually)

As you can see, marketing the best you is more than just selling or promoting your business and it’s products or services. As a business owner, you are in most cases the business (when people meet you, they are immediately exposed to the quality of your service or product). In the virtual world however, people won’t necessarily meet you face-to-face but they too are exposed to the quality of your service or product. How? Through your website, telephone conversation, and/or via email responses.

In closing, remember this, first impressions are everlasting, so when given the opportunity always remember to market the best in You…

To learn more about the Virtual Business Owners Initiative go to: www.vsscyberoffice.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The First Steps In Real Estate Investing

With all the stories of people making tremendous amounts of money in real estate it’s no wonder why so many are looking at real estate as an investment vehicle. It offers more security than the stock market, provides great potential returns, offers tax benefits and let’s not forget; it sounds cool to be ‘in real estate’. Everybody can buy and sell stocks from their phone or computer these days. But real estate, now that’s something else.

One of the challenges that many are faced with is putting up the money to acquire a piece of property. Although in reality this is usually not the biggest obstacle. You might say “Hey, what do you mean, not an obstacle. I would love to invest in real estate, but I just can’t afford to!” The point is that hardly anyone who buys a piece of real estate has enough money in their account to pay for it. That’s where your banker comes in. Let’s face it. Do you know anyone that owns their own home? I mean truly own it? Probably not. Sure, you know a lot of people that have a house to their name, but wait until they get behind on their monthly mortgage payments and you will soon find out who really owns their house. That’s right, the bank. So if these people can use the bank’s money to buy a house, why can’t you?

Now ‘owning’ your own home may sound like a somewhat obvious way to get started in real estate, but it is also a very good way to do so. You might say “Duh…” But apparently this little step is overlooked by a lot of people. Just take a look at how many people are still renting a property instead of buying one. Now of course the relation between rent and housing prices varies from country to country and even from area to area. But wherever you go you will still find people renting, because in their mind “they don’t have enough money to buy a house.” In reality it would be much cheaper for them to buy!

When you rent, you are pretty much flushing your money down the toilet. Of course you are getting the pleasure of living, but the point is you’re not building anything long term. Every dollar you spend on rent is a dollar you will never see again. Whereas if you own your own home, instead of paying rent you would be paying for your mortgage. Even though there is a lot of variety in mortgages these days, the basics of practically all mortgages are more or less the same. Every month you make a payment which consists of two parts: interest and principle. The interest part can be compared to rent. Those dollars are gone with the wind and you will never hear from them again. However, the part of the payment that goes to the principle is money you keep. Every dollar that is used to pay off the principal is a dollar you put in your own pocket.

So if you’re thinking about getting started in real estate and you don’t ‘own’ your own house yet… Change it, and get some experience. It’s a great first step towards building your capital and in many cases, it just makes more sense financially. It can also supply a range of opportunities for accelerating the process of building your net worth. When real estate prices go up, so does the value of your property. Whereas the money you owe the bank, your mortgage, remains the same. In other words this helps you build your net worth. Compare this to people that are paying rent… Their net worth does nothing. However their landlord’s net worth is doing very nicely in this scenario and he or she will probably love you for it. So if you get a warm fuzzy feeling about making somebody else rich at your own expense… Keep renting. If you would rather build your own capital instead… Buy your own house!

Many home owners have accumulated more money through appreciation of their property than by working a full time job for many years. Now before you go out and buy the first property you lay eyes on, don’t forget that some security measures are in order here. As you may or may not know, real estate prices do not always go up, and certainly not in a straight line. Yep, this can be shocker to some people, as well as an ugly reminder for those who overlooked this minor detail in the past. If for some reason you would have to sell your home in a down market, it can be a costly adventure. You wouldn’t be the first to end up with a house worth considerably less than the mortgage resting on it. So make sure to keep some slack. In the long run real estate prices have always been on the rise, but in any cycle there are down periods. By keeping some slack and being patient you will be able to sit through these times and profit from the long term up-trend.

About the Author

Jim Mack is an expert on business, health and well being. He regularly contributes articles on these subjects. The Best Investing Tips

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